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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Two NYC Police Officers Shot; NYC Mayor Condemns Officer Disrespect; Racing the Clock to Find AirAsia Wreckage; Boehner Faces Rebellion on Right; Speaker is Elected By Entire House

Aired January 06, 2015 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning: two New York City police officers shot overnight. The gunmen on the loose. This following the recent murder of two other officers, the violence unfolding, as tensions between the department and city's mayor rise. The mayor calling recent actions of some officers disrespectful.

We are live with the latest overnight and how the department moves forward if there is a way next.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, frustration and disappointment in the search for AirAsia Flight 8501, stormy weather, and murky and muddy water, and time ticking down to find identifiable remains of those on board that missing plane. We are live with the latest.

BERMAN: Polar plunge, millions facing fast falling temperatures this morning. It is so cold. It could break records in some cities. We will tell you where and what you need to know for the day.

ROMANS: A source tells me it is winter.

BERMAN: Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Breaking news this morning, police are hunting for a pair of gunmen who say they shot two New York City police officers overnight. The officers were responding to a robbery call at the store in the Bronx.

Officials say both officers are now hospitalized. One is in critical condition. Now the shootings comes against the back drop of high tension between New York Mayor Bill De Blasio and city police officers following the ambush murders of two officers last month.

The mayor addressed the rift for the first time at a news conference on Monday. He said those officers that turned their backs on him on multiple occasions were disrespectful.

At the same time, the mayor and his police commissioner downplayed a drastic plunge in arrests for low level offenses. The drop of 90 percent in some categories of arrests and summons is raising concerns of a potential work slowdown by NYPD officers. National correspondent, Miguel Marquez, standing by live with the very latest -- Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We have some new video that we want to show you. NYPD is releasing video of one of these individuals. There he is. That is one of the people that they are looking for. He is at the shop window there.

Moments later, the video shows him turn toward the outside. With a very large black revolver, an old-school revolver, he turns and shoots out from the inside of the building out toward the plain clothes officers. One of those officers was hit.

That was the revolver that police later found at the car that was abandoned that they hijacked. One of those police officers was hit in the arm and back and the other in the arm and chest. Both are expected to survive.

It is important to point out that this is not the same situation as when Detective Liu and Detective Ramos were assassinated in their squad car. These were two officers. It is shocking video to see.

That video there where you see him at the top of the screen firing that weapon, it's a very, very big gun that he has. These officers were in plain clothes. They were responding to a robbery. They may have been getting off work and may not have had protective vests on.

But they are expected to survive. All of this against the back drop of the frustration that police are feeling against the mayor and for the first time the mayor addressed those tensions and police turning their backs on him at a press conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK: Those individuals who took certain actions these last week or last two weeks really they were disrespectful to the families involved. That's the bottom line.

They were disrespectful to the families who had lost their loved ones. I can't understand why anyone would do such a thing in the context like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Now that happened after the police commissioner had asked, asked officers not to turn their backs on the mayor in a memo. They did anyway. He expressed his frustration with it as well saying that he did not understand why they wanted to make a political statement at a funeral like this.

All of this against a second backdrop of whether or not there is a work slowdown. The example we are talking about this morning, these were two police officers who seemed to be getting off duty and responded to the robbery in any event.

It doesn't sound like in this case there were certainly any holding back or stopping or slowing down of their work. The numbers for the second week in a row are down enormously, the number of arrests, the number of criminal summons, parking tickets, everything, some of them down over 90 percent.

In general, down about 55 percent. But police have been dealing with a lot of different issues lately. One is the holidays. There are also two to a team now and they've been spending thousands and thousands of hours on these protests with thousands of police called in on overtime to deal with these protests.

So they really have not had as much time to do this and at the end of the day, cops are people as well. There is concern about their own safety as they are out there on the streets. I think that assassination of the two cops certainly affected them at a very basic level.

ROMANS: These two suspects are on the loose right now.

MARQUEZ: On the loose. They are only described as male Latinos between 25 and 30 years old, a pretty generic description. That video is very, very high quality. That is a very good look at one of the suspects there with the beard.

BERMAN: We are just getting this, the first look at video right now. This is the first time we have seen this. Of course, this news breaking again overnight, these men on the loose, and as you say, the backdrop, I want to show you the cover of "The Daily News."

This gives a sense of how bad the situation is here. "The Daily News" today says "End this war now." The war they are talking about is between the New York City police force and the New York City mayor.

MARQUEZ: The police force is the bedrock of civil society. You cannot have a major global city like this at war. It feels like a powder keg. Protesters are increasingly angry. The police feel the mayor doesn't have their backs. It feels if the wrong thing happens at the wrong time, things would go from bad to much worse.

ROMANS: That was not an apology. It was a "You disrespected the families by turning your backs on me." That is not

MARQUEZ: I don't think he will apologize. I'm not sure an apology would help at this point. We know that he does not have any more meetings scheduled with the unions. That may come down the road. I think he is doing a lot of work to spend as much time with police as possible and maybe that is the road he needs to take. We will see in the days ahead.

BERMAN: Miguel Marquez, great to have you with here with us. Thanks so much.

In Indonesia this morning, disappointment and frustration as crews searching for AirAsia Flight 8501, they are facing in very harsh conditions. The more time passes, the harder it does become to find any salvageable wreckage and black boxes from the flight. The harder it might be to identify the deceased. Rough weather that they thought would break today did not happen. It was still difficult out there. None of the nearly 100 divers in the search zone deployed today.

CNN's Anna Coren live for us now in Surabaya in Indonesia. Anna, what's the latest?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, as you say, extremely frustrating times for those involved in the search and recovery operation there. Yet to get to any of that debris that they believe is the wreckage of the plane, yet to retrieve any of it.

Four objects have been spotted using sonar. There was a fifth object spotted late yesterday. It was thought it was the tail of the plane. That has now been ruled out by officials.

For those that are part of the operation, they just cannot get in the water. The divers you mentioned, 97 divers. They did not get into the water today. The reason being is the poor visibility. It is literally zero visibility at the bottom.

It is also described as extremely dangerous conditions. That is what we are hearing from the head of the army who flew out there to the "USS Samson," one of many international ships that are taking part in the recovery effort.

He said these people are risking their lives and doing the work that they are doing. He doesn't want any more deaths. He is asking for patience. He says they are working around the clock trying to find the wreckage.

Trying to find the bodies that they believe are strapped in their seats in the wreckage at the bottom of the Java Sea. It is just a matter of finding that wreckage really.

Late today, another two bodies were retrieved. Taking the number now to 39. They are on the way here to Surabaya where they will be handed over to the Disaster Victims Identification Unit. They will go through the task of the painstaking duty of identifying the bodies.

The head of the unit says early today and he said that the bodies that they've received so far, concerned in the days because of the decomposition in the water, that they will be getting body parts and they could be facing skeletons, which make the identification process so much harder -- John.

BERMAN: Very difficult for the families. Anna Coren for us in Surabaya, thank you.

ROMANS: Congress reconvenes today at noon with Republicans in control of both chambers for the first time since 2006. There are bumps ahead in the road for the GOP. The first, of course, is the president ready to veto any bills rolling back on Obamacare and executive action.

And there is the more immediate concern of a small internal rebellion of some conservative House Republicans set against voting John Boehner as speaker. CNN's Dana Bash has the latest.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The big question on the opening day of Congress is how big will the rebellion against John Boehner be for speaker? When the new Congress is sworn in, there will be 246 House Republicans.

So far, there are only about a dozen who will oppose Boehner for speaker. Those in the Republican leadership who I talked with say this is just the group they not so lovingly call the hell no caucus.

There are usually no votes on just about everything. The house speaker is elected by the entire House. Boehner has the get a majority, 218, that means he can afford to lose 29 Republicans and still be speaker.

I talked to his allies yesterday. They say they are monitoring that issue. Here is Tom Cole, a Boehner ally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM COLE (R), OKLAHOMA: This is a last-minute side show. This distracts from our message ought to be. We should talk about the Republican agenda, aaout the possibilities now we have the Senate about Keystone and about fixes on Obamacare, trade and regulatory reform, those types of issues.

Instead, on the opening day of the new Republican Congress, we have Republicans at odds. That's just unfortunate. It steps on the story. It doesn't accomplish anything productive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The argument that Cole and others make is that you cannot replace someone with no one. Right now there is no other House Republican who has raised as much money, campaigned for as many people or has the leadership experience and skills to come close to getting 218 votes to be the speaker of the House.

Cole, who we just heard from, and other members of the team, who I talked to say, that they are quietly making calls to rank-and-file Republicans just to be safe.

But you know, even if Boehner isn't deposed as speaker, he will start the new Congress back on his heels a bit because of this rebellion no matter how big it is -- John and Christine.

BERMAN: All right, our thanks to Dana.

The embattled leader of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto visits the White House today. He is meeting with President Obama is sparking some controversy. The Mexican president is under intense fire at home where drug violence is raging and corruption charges are mounting.

Protests in Mexico have turned violent after the outrage builds over the disappearance of 43 university students. Those students were allegedly killed by drug traffickers after being handed over by corrupt police.

ROMANS: It's 42 minutes past the hour. Oil prices tanking and stocks are falling with it. U.S. stock futures are a bit lower right now after a rough day yesterday, although, this doesn't look nearly as bad as we saw yesterday. The Dow fell 331 points. That is about 2 percent. The S&P 500 is down 2 percent.

Plunging oil prices are to blame. Crude oil fell more than 5 percent yesterday. That is a very big one day move. Moving even lower this morning, sitting below $49 a barrel, it was well over $100 a barrel last summer.

Now it could keep falling to $30 a barrel before stabilizing, but no one knows for sure. Prices are in a free fall because global demand is weak and a supply glut in the U.S. due to the shale gas boom.

Now cheap oil is a win for drivers, of course, but it's devastating for energy companies and stocks. It is devastating for countries like Russia that depend on oil revenue.

As these prices decline, a lot of people are asking at what point do some of these independent processors in the U.S., producers in the U.S., at what point are they not making any money anymore?

BERMAN: How long can they handle this?

ROMANS: And if the U.S. supply boom slows then maybe prices go up again.

BERMAN: States like Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota are suffering budget surplus.

ROMANS: You will see job cuts in energy. Job cuts after a boom in energy jobs over the past few years.

BERMAN: All right, 43 minutes after the hour right now.

ROMANS: Temperatures falling fast across the country. How low they will go and how long it will last after the break.

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ROMANS: The coldest blast of arctic air so far this winter is hitting the U.S. right now. Many states seeing temperatures up to 35 degrees below average for early January. South Dakota slammed by snow and subzero temperatures. You can see people venturing out on the roads. Half foot of snow is expected in some areas.

A 20-car pileup closed down parts of Interstate 80 near Des Moines, Iowa. We are told several people were taken to the hospital. Fortunately, they are expected to be OK.

To the east, snow coming down hard in Fulton, New York, 3 inches falling an hour. Officials say the lake-effect snow prompted more accidents than 911 dispatchers could even count. Frightening moments for a mom in Maine driving with her son, ice and snow flew off the car in front of her, shattering her windshield. Fortunately no one was hurt. She told our affiliate, WMTW her adrenaline was pumping.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It could have been worse. It could have gone through my windshield.

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ROMANS: Meanwhile, in Western Washington, nonstop rain caused landslides, which left about 200 people stranded. One slide cut off the road out of Hoquiam. Some people have been escorted to and from their homes over a logging road.

CNN affiliate, KIRO, was out interviewing residents caught -- when it caught another terrifying landslide on camera.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard a big crack and the trees come down and they just cracked and boom.

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ROMANS: Wow. More rain in the forecast for the northwest along with frigid temperatures pushing south and east from the Midwest. Let's get to meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri, for an early look at your cold weather -- Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good Tuesday morning, John and Christine. Let's touch on the Pacific Northwest in recent days. Tremendous rainfall especially right on the immediate coast, this is where we had that landslide across Hoquiam, up to 7 inches came down from Sunday on into Monday across this region.

Keep in mind, we have the Olympic Mountain is on the western side. They take the brunt of the rainfall and snowfall. You get to the eastern side. Seattle is quiet in the last couple days. Minimum rainfall compared to just a few miles away of getting 7 plus inches.

But the big story right now, I'm talking about what's happening around Chicago, average temperature this time of year is freezing, 32 degrees. Look at Tuesday's high temperature, 14 and it drops down to the high of only 1 over the next couple of days.

Windchills could be about 25 or 30 below zero. In fact over the next week, Chicago will struggle to get up to the average of freezing for this time of year.

Notice Minneapolis also high temperature of minus 3. Windchills could be about 40 below even out towards Chicago, New york and Boston with highs generally in the low 20s. Windchills in the teens. Snow showers are possible in New England, but the big story is the comparison coming out of Antarctica. Look at the temperatures there, 7 while 1 below in the Midwest. It's summer across the region, but still impressive nonetheless. Back to you.

ROMANS: Yes, that makes it even feel colder in Minnesota this morning. Thanks for that, Pedram.

New details this morning in the survival of the 7-year-old on board a deadly plane crash finding her way to safety barefoot through the woods in the dark and cold, hear from the man who helped her call police right after the break.

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ROMANS: Attorney General Eric Holder will represent the Obama administration at the funeral today for Mario Cuomo. The former three-term New York governor will be laid to rest at a Manhattan church later this morning. Cuomo died of heart failure on New Year's Day at age of 82.

On Monday, a host of dignitaries paid their respects at a wake for the governor, among them, Vice President Biden and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie among many, many others.

The United States ski team is reeling this morning from the deaths of two upcoming stars, 20-year-old Ronnie Berlack of Vermont, and 19- year-old Bryce Astle of Utah killed in an avalanche in Austria on Monday. Four other skiers who are with them, they managed to escape with their lives.

The 7-year-old Sailor Gutzler back home in Illinois this morning in the arms of her family. The resilient little girl is the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents, sister and cousin.

Relatives will now raise Sailor who somehow escaped a burning airplane in the Kentucky woods and wandered in the dark a mile in bitter cold before finding help at the door step of Larry Wilkins.

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LARRY WILKINS, HELPED 7-YEAR-OLD CRASH SURVIVOR: Bloody nose, legs all bleeding, crying and told me her parents were dead and that she was in a plane crash. The plane was upside down. It was below 40 between 35 and 40 degrees, had a bit of a mist.

The little girl was, I won't say damp, not wet, but damp all over. Of course, she was barefooted. She had one sock on one foot. Tremendous little girl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Funeral services for Sailor's cousin, 14-year-old Sierra Wilder, are planned for tomorrow. A private service is scheduled for Friday for Sailor's mother, father and 9-year-old sister.

All right, could the end of cable be near? An early start on your money next.

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ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money right now. A very ugly start to the year for stocks, U.S. stock futures lower after yesterday's selloff. The Dow dropped 331 points that's about 2 percent.

Energy stocks is leading that dive. Crude oil is down more than 5 percent yesterday moving even lower again this morning now below $49 a barrel right now that is the lowest in more than five years. Look at that chart. Experts say prices may keep falling.

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg's New Year resolution is to start a book club. The page has 180,000 likes. Now the book's author was overwhelmed by the selection.

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MOISES NAIM, AUTHOR "THE END OF POWER": I wasn't expecting it. I just learned about it as everyone else. I woke up in the morning and looked at my Twitter feed, and there it was.

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ROMANS: The power of social media. Zuckerberg will pick a new book every two weeks.

ESPN for cord cutters will end soon. Satellite provider Dish Network will launch Sling TV with a bundle of channels available online including ESPN and CNN. The core package costs $20 a month. Who are they hoping to attract? Millennials with the streaming option. This package could be a game changer.

Breaking news this morning, two New York police officers shot in the line of duty. Just the latest bruise for the department. Two suspects on loose at this hour. "NEW DAY" starts right now.